


i see you (from a different point of view)

by niallszayn



Category: One Direction (Band), Sam Smith (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-06-09 21:53:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19484767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niallszayn/pseuds/niallszayn
Summary: niall and sam have had a casual friends with benefits situation going on for years. that doesn't have to change...does it?





	i see you (from a different point of view)

**Author's Note:**

> because starting one relationship tag on ao3 isn't enough, here's me doing it a second time! thanks again to the mods of the rarepair fest, it's been a blast!  
> as for this fic: sorry, i just really like a cliché, predictable trope...
> 
> update sept 13th, 2019: as of today, sam officially changed their pronouns to they/them. i wrote and posted this fic before they made this public and i just want to clarify that i didn’t intentionally misgender them. i’m very very proud of them for this step!

They only occasionally hook up. It’s not a thing, not really, it’s only that the number of queer men - where there’s mutual interest and absolute certainty that there’ll be no stories sold to the press - in Niall’s social circle is quite limited. He doesn’t find out Sam’s non-binary until later, when he goes public with it, and has to google it. Then, even though it embarrasses him, he asks Sam if his gender identity changes anything between them, which Sam laughs at.

“Oh, honey, it’s sweet that you ask. But I still go by male pronouns,” he says, “and everything else is the same as always. I’ve always been the person I am now, I might just publically wear things that are traditionally considered to be female more. And if you don’t mind that, we’re fine.”

Niall doesn’t mind, not at all.

The point is, Niall wanted someone to safely explore his sexuality with, and he needed it to be a secret. When he first started flirting with Sam; brazenly, but still a little nervous and unsure; Sam had been surprised, but not too surprised.

After that, it’s easy. They get along well, they’re both naturally flirty, and whenever they hang out, they end up in bed. It’s easy there as well, Niall’s down for almost anything and once Sam realises that, he lets his guard down enough for them to really have fun.

When one of them is seeing someone, things don’t get awkward either. They both know exactly what their arrangement is, and they’re good at being just friends too. It’s funny, really, that they’re both the type to get too attached too quickly yet manage to maintain a friends with benefits relationship with each other with no complications whatsoever. Niall’s kind of proud of that.

That’s how things are, for a year, for two, for three. And then Niall finishes his first album cycle and decides to lay low in LA for a little bit. 

He has plenty of friends who live in LA, but most of them travel just as much as him, so not all of them are always around when he is. Mully works a lot, now that his bar is open and running, so he can’t always make time for Niall either, even when Niall just wants a quiet night and a couple of drinks, and to not be alone.

Shawn is away, Louis is, everyone he texts either doesn’t reply or blows him off, so Niall eventually messages Sam:  _ You in LA by any chance?? _

He is, and only an hour later, they’re on Niall’s massive couch with a beer each and a mindless movie playing on his equally massive TV.

“You’ve done this up nicely,” Sam says, looking around. 

Niall can’t really believe he hasn’t seen his LA house yet, but then again Sam was dating someone for a while (which Niall thinks he read is over now, though he’s not sure and he hasn’t asked), and Niall was, and they don’t hang out at each other’s houses much when they’re not both single.

“Thank you,” he says, smiling at Sam. Having been this involved in the whole process, he really is quite proud of the result.

They sit out in the garden for a while, and Niall contently tips his head back towards the sun, enjoys the cool beer in his hand. 

“What’ve you been up to lately, then?” Sam wants to know. 

Niall shrugs, squints at him through the sun in his eyes. “Not much since tour ended, to be honest. Wrote a little, chilled a lot. Played golf.”

Sam snorts softly. “Right, that’s your thing, I almost forgot.”

“Shut it, Smith,” Niall jokes. “This is still my house.”

When the sun has mostly gone down, Niall suggests that they go inside, and this time it’s Sam who squints at him. 

“So tell me,” he says, “was this actually a booty call?”

Niall blushes bright red for some reason and stammers out, “I, what- no!”

Sam laughs. “Relax, darling. It’d be okay if it was, too, you know that.”

“Yeah,” Niall says and feels his embarrassment fizzle out. Sam’s good at that sort of thing. “Yeah, I know. I just...I honestly wasn’t gunning for that tonight. Just wanted to chill at home, but not on my own.”

“But you’re not seeing anyone right now, are you?”

“No,” Niall admits. He’s not surprised by Sam’s question, they usually clear this up whenever they hang out so they both know what they’re getting into. “You?”

“Nah,” Sam shrugs, but there’s still a little sadness around his eyes. He doesn’t like being single, unlike Niall, who quite enjoys it most of the time. Yeah, relationships are great, but being single is much less work and just the better choice for him during some periods of his life. And he rarely ever feels lonely, has plenty of people to surround himself with for when he does.

On Niall’s enormous couch, they watch some mindless reality TV, which Niall hates and Sam loves. Sam being so knowledgeable about it and commenting on absolutely everything while they’re slowly getting buzzed on their beers makes it surprisingly entertaining, though. 

They start out on opposite ends of the couch, but whenever one of them gets up to go to the bathroom or get a new drink, they end up sitting a little closer than before, until eventually, their shoulders are touching where they’re both sitting in the middle of the couch.

It’s comfortable, like things always are with Sam, and when their eyes meet, Niall doesn’t hesitate to bridge the space between them to kiss Sam.

Sam hums quietly and lifts a hand to fit it against the back of Niall’s neck, holding him close. They kiss like that until Niall’s leg starts cramping from the twisted way he’s sitting and he shifts away, breaking their kiss to stretch his leg. 

Sam’s looking dazed in the way he often gets when they’ve been snogging for a while and strokes a soft hand up and down Niall’s leg, manoeuvering Niall’s body until he can press him down into the couch, completely stretched out, and fit in between his legs. 

It’s nice to feel Sam’s weight on top of him, heavier than Hailee used to be, and yet so familiar. He wouldn’t go as far as saying he’s missed it, but...he kind of has. Or maybe it’s just the kissing he’s missed, because that is definitely great.

Sam rolls his hips and Niall moans against his lips, pushes a hand under Sam’s shirt to get to his skin. His shorts are alright, but Sam’s gotta be uncomfortable by now, he muses as he slides his other hand down to the button of Sam’s jeans.

“D’you wanna move to the bedroom?” he mumbles, and Sam nips on his jaw before nodding.

“So this  _ was  _ a booty call after all,” he says with a twinkle in his eye and Niall laughs.

“Fuck off,” he grins. “As if you don’t want it just as much.”

Sam lifts himself half off Niall before he uses both hands to ruck Niall’s shirt all the way up and darts down to press his lips to Niall’s belly. With a cheeky grin, he looks up at Niall. “Maybe even more.”

~

Sam’s rented a house by the beach for his time in LA, a direct contrast to the winter weather back home in England where he spent Christmas. He’s only just arrived and since he spent a night at Niall’s, they agree it’s only fair they spend the next one at Sam’s. The house is at once cosy and fancy as hell, and Niall can’t pretend there isn’t an argument to be made for the ocean view. They don’t spend an awful lot of time outside while he’s there, though.

~

Sam texts him a couple of days later while he’s out at Runyon Canyon for a hike. 

_ Maggie Rogers is playing Fonda Theatre tonight, fancy coming with? X _

Of course Niall says yes, it’s a no brainer - he loves Maggie and has told Sam so, and he loves spending time with Sam away from home too. After all, they’re friends first and foremost. 

Fonda Theatre is on the smaller side, which Niall likes. It makes it easier to fly under the radar. It’s also a beautiful venue, lots of red and gold and heavy textiles. They arrive late - also a tactic to avoid being seen - and stand in the back. Some heads turn, some people look twice, but no one approaches them.

“Nice crowd, huh?” Sam whispers, and Niall grins and pulls his cap lower on his head.

Maggie is amazing; not like Niall expected otherwise; and next to him, Sam is having the time of his life. He dances (which mostly consists of the cute shimmy he does that Niall’s entirely too charmed by) and sings along, and when Niall takes a video to share on his instagram story, he can’t help but film Sam too. The laugh that escapes him is a bit too fond, but when Niall rewatches it in the car later, he decides to share the story anyway.

After the show, a few people approach them for pictures or a hug, but they’re mostly left alone. They share a car home and Niall gives his address without really thinking about it.They chat easily for the duration of the ride, and only when the car pulls up outside of Niall’s house, does Niall think to ask, ”Did you even want to come back to mine? Sorry, I just-”

“Nah, it’s fine, I’ll come in,” Sam says and follows Niall out of the car. 

They’re barely inside when Sam turns and corners Niall, his back to the front door. 

“Okay?” he asks, and Niall nods, twisting his hands in the fabric of Sam’s t-shirt to pull him closer. He’s spent the evening wanting to kiss Sam every time he laughed, so he’s more than ready for it.

They barely leave Niall’s bed for 36 hours. It feels really nice spending time with Sam like this, talking for hours on end, laughing, cuddling, not just having sex. Though they also have plenty of that, obviously. Niall hasn’t felt this relaxed and...content, somehow, in ages.

It has to end when Sam has a commitment for  _ Dancing with a Stranger _ promo and Niall decides to use the time for gym. He kisses Sam goodbye at the door and watches as he gets into the car waiting for him. Sam’s wearing the same clothes he wore to the concert they went to because he hasn’t worn them at all since they arrived at Niall’s. Whenever they did leave the bed, Niall lent him some shorts and a t-shirt, so as not to scare Mully in case he was around. Sam’s stylist will have an outfit laid out for him for his day.

Niall feels relaxed and well rested and Sam looks it too, waving at Niall as the car pulls away. 

Back inside, Niall does some cleaning that he neglected while Sam stayed over, before he packs his stuff for the gym. He can’t let himself get too out of shape during studio times and he hasn’t done anything since his hike the other day. He posts a sweaty selfie on his insta story later, mostly because he knows people have been getting antsy to see his face. It’s in his twitter mentions all the time.

He’s been messing around on his guitar, notes app open on his phone, for a couple of hours, when Sam replies to his story:  _ you can’t post that and expect me to just continue my day!!! _

Niall grins at his phone screen dumbly for a moment, then replies cheekily:  _ come back then ! _

Sam’s at his door barely two hours later, and says he’s a little disappointed Niall showered.

“Why?” Niall asks, taken aback. “I was all sweaty and disgusting.”

“Exactly,” Sam says. “It was sexy.”

Niall wrinkles his nose. “You have weird taste, Smith.”

“Well,  _ you’re _ my taste, so would you maybe like to overthink that?”

Niall laughs and shoves him away but then pulls him back in for a kiss. 

“Hey,” Sam says, “I was thinking. You like Elton John, right?”

Niall scoffs. “I’m offended as a musician and as a bisexual man you even have to ask that.”

Sam grins. “Good, cause I was gonna ask you to come with me to see him at Staples Center on Wednesday.”

“What?” Niall gasps, “Yeah, I’ll fucking come! Did he invite you?”

“Yeah”, Sam laughs. “Told me to bring a plus one too, so...I thought I’d ask you.”

“Shit,” Niall says, “Thank you! That’s, like, a dream come true.”

“You’re welcome,” Sam pecks his lips, “But for now, can we go to my place tonight? I kinda need to change my clothes, and I am paying for it while I’m here after all.”

Niall shakes his head, trying to gather his thoughts. “Yeah, mate, course! Not like I hate spending time at your beach house.”

~

They spend a couple days at Sam’s, taking walks along the beach, sitting on his veranda, watching the sunset, painting each other’s toenails (a first for Niall, but not a bad experience. Only Sam’s foot ends up on his instagram, though). Niall goes into the studio to write, does a twitter Q&A to keep his followers happy.

And then they head out to see Elton John, who’s one of Niall’s personal heroes and favourite artists of all time, so, like, not a big deal at all. 

The Farewell Yellow Brick Road show is absolutely incredible, nostalgic, grateful, powerful, and Niall loves every second of it. It’s a colourful celebration of music in general and Elton John’s music specifically, and for two and a half hours, Niall has the absolute time of his life. He keeps thinking that if he gets to perform like Elton John does, even if it’s on a smaller scale (he’s never gonna get to Elton John fame, he knows that), but on stage at this age, he’ll have fulfilled his life’s dream. 

“He really is one of a kind, huh?” Sam says to him, and Niall nods, in awe. 

“Imagine people still wanting to see you on stage when you’re 70,” he says, and Sam laughs.

“The ultimate goal, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Niall agrees and reaches for his hand, gives it a quick squeeze. “Thanks for bringing me.”

Sam’s smile goes softer and he squeezes back before Niall lets go. 

Besides them, Lady Gaga is a celebrity guest, and she greets Niall warmly. She’s always been great whenever he met her, be it with One Direction or as a solo artist. Her and Sam seem closer, but they make sure to include Niall in their conversation. It’s a great evening even before they go backstage to meet Elton John. 

He’s exactly what Niall always hopes his idols will be like - kind and considerate, and very welcoming. He greets Sam and Lady Gaga like old friends, which Niall supposes they kind of are, and then he turns to Niall with open arms.

“And you’ve brought me Niall, too!”

“It’s such an honour to meet you,” Niall says and then hesitates for a second (Elton John? Sir Elton? Just Elton? He can’t call him Mr John!), “Sir.”

“Please, call me Elton,” Elton John says, and Niall almost feels faint when he hugs him. 

“Niall’s been so excited to meet you,” Sam tells Elton with a wink, one hand on Niall’s shoulder. “Hasn’t shut up about it for days.”

“You shut up,” Niall mumbles, blushing, and elbows Sam lightly.

“Well, I think it’s a shame it took this long,” Elton says. “I’ve been following your career since the start, after all.”

“Which still amazes me,” Niall laughs. “I remember Harry almost cried when we first found out you knew who One Direction were.”

Niall’s mind is completely blown when Elton says, “I’ve been loving your solo material, too.”

“That means so much,” he says, overwhelmed. “Thank you so much.”

“So, you’re Sam’s plus one tonight, then?”

“Yeah,” Niall says, and desperately hopes he’s not blushing when he smiles at Sam, “He asked me along, nicely enough.”

“Mhm,” Elton smiles knowingly between the two of them, and Niall feels himself flush for real now. He’s in a room full of queer icons, what did he expect? Himself among them, not even out to the public, but definitely less guarded in this environment. Sam’s hand on him one way or another basically since they walked into this room.

He doesn’t mind, really, it’s only that him and Sam aren’t  _ that _ . Right?

Sam seems to ignore the insinuation, so so does Niall. Maybe he’s just imagining things, anyway. 

They take a picture, all four of them together, for Sir Elton’s instagram, and even though Elton himself stands between them, Sam reaches all the way across his shoulders to put his hand on Niall’s shoulder instead. 

When they’re on the way back to Sam’s later, Niall still feels starstruck and a little unsure what to make of the whole night.

“You alright, love?” Sam asks.

“Mhm,” Niall makes, absent. “Just thinking.”

“He’s really cool, isn’t he? Elton?”

“Yeah,” Niall says and smiles at Sam. “Thanks again, honestly. It’s been a great night.”

“Anytime.” Sam reaches for Niall’s hand, and Niall interlaces their fingers. He’s stopped worrying about what drivers see - the professional ones have all signed pretty airtight contracts and NDAs, at least if they’re with a company that drives high profile people regularly. So he leans over and kisses Sam, his free hand going to cradle Sam’s jaw. Sam kisses him back sweetly, keeps it mostly chaste and rests his hand on Niall’s thigh. 

They keep holding hands until they’re home.

~

_ What a Time _ is out the next day, and Niall posts a video he took in his living room playing the song on his guitar, even though he spends most of the day at Sam’s place. It’s great, getting to see the positive reviews and tweets coming in, and he spends almost an hour on the phone with Julia. He’s infinitely proud of her, knowing how personal her album is, how much emotion she put in there. She deserves all the success she has and more.

“You’re a really good friend,” Sam tells him after Niall’s hung up the phone. “We’re all lucky to have you.”

Niall blushes and lowers his head. “‘M not doing anything out of the ordinary.”

“If you say so,” Sam shrugs. “Anyway, it’s a fucking great song. You both did really well.”

“Thank you,” Niall says, kissing his cheek. They’re cuddled up on Sam’s couch, comfortable, and Niall doesn’t like the thought of them not spending the next few days together. But Sam’s got plans with other friends, with Jameela Jamil, promo things, and Niall has the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego. He could technically come back home to his own house every night, but it’s honestly just easier to stay at a hotel with all the other golfers. 

They part ways the next morning with a few last kisses by Sam’s front door, and when Niall’s in the car back to his place, he marvels at how quickly he got used to having Sam around all the time. It’s just nice having the comforting presence of someone else around, someone to cuddle up to, someone in his bed. Especially if that someone is this easy, a person he doesn’t have to talk about his feelings with. He knows that’s the part he struggles most with in relationships. Niall’s always been much better at expressing himself through music rather than direct communication, and it’s often made things unnecessarily complicated. Not with Sam, though.

However, on the first day they’re apart, Sam posts a screenshot of  _ What a Time _ on his insta story and captions it “@niallhoran I love you boy”, which Niall has to completely ignore because of the way it makes him feel when it really shouldn’t make him feel anything of the sort. He doesn’t reply to Sam’s story.

The golf tournament is fun as always, but at night, alone in his hotel room, Niall suddenly finds himself reaching for his phone and wanting to call Sam. It’s very much not what they do, though, so he doesn’t, but there’s no denying Sam has somehow become the person he wants to talk to first. 

“Fuck,” Niall murmurs to himself and tosses his phone to the end of the bed. He can’t go and develop feelings for Sam now, after three years of things working out perfectly! He’d ruin everything. He’s got to ignore this until Sam leaves LA and things can go back to normal. Not talking for these couple of days of golf is probably good practice - and Niall  _ will  _ ignore how hard he finds it. There’s no way he’s ending things now. A), Sam would probably immediately figure out why he ended it, and B), Niall just doesn’t want to. He feels too good with Sam to give that up now, before he has to.

After the golf, Niall really has to get back into the studio, so he leaves Sam to his other friends during the day, but they finally reunite the evening after Niall gets back to LA. Sam’s texted him,  _ Are you back in LA already? _ , to which Niall replied,  _ I’ll be at my house tonight _ . He’s come to the private conclusion that he should make use of the time he’s got with Sam, and then maybe after he’s gone it’ll turn out to have been nothing but a passing crush. It’s probably normal to develop some sort of feelings for someone you’re shagging this regularly. 

Sam lets himself in with the door code while Niall’s making dinner and comes up behind him to kiss his neck. Niall shivers and Sam grins against his skin, whispers, “Hey, you.”

“If you want dinner, you’re gonna have to stop doing that,” Niall says, but he turns around to kiss Sam hello anyway. He’s aware that’s not necessarily what friends with benefits do and they’re moving awfully far into relationship territory, but he can’t bring himself to care.

“If I wasn’t so hungry and this didn’t smell so good, I might just be tempted,” Sam says and detaches himself. 

“Thank you,” Niall says as if he wouldn’t have liked to keep kissing Sam just fine. 

~

Niall spends long hours in the studio, alternating his writing partners every couple days, and it’s going well. He wants to explore his rockier side this time around, do something different, and it’s all going better than he’d dared to hope. The second album is a frightening task to take on, but by now he’s beginning to feel confident about it.

They spend a few days like that - separately busy during the day, then spending the evenings and nights together at one of their places. It’s the mornings Niall likes best, though, morning cuddles, lazy morning sex, having breakfast together.

He doesn’t tell Sam this, feels like it would be crossing any last boundaries. They’ve crossed many of them already, if he’s honest, but Sam hasn’t said anything and Niall doesn’t know how to bring it up. So what if this feels a lot like every relationship he’s ever had - doesn’t mean it is one.

All in all, things seem to be going pretty well for him right now, Niall thinks to himself one afternoon as he’s about to leave the studio - until, that is, he sees Sam’s insta story he’s been tagged in. 

Sam’s posted a screenshot of him listening to  _ What a Time _ again, which would be alright in itself, nice even - Niall really liked it the first time, despite (or maybe because of) the confusion he felt at the declaration of love. This time, however, Sam’s followed it up directly with a screenshot of the lyrics to  _ Heart of the Matter  _ by Don Henley. And again: it doesn’t have to mean anything, but Niall feels it right in his heart, that one. He’s been talking about the Eagles and Don a lot over the last few days, even more than usual because he’s trying to channel them in his songwriting a bit. So clearly, Niall’s on Sam’s mind. But even more clearly, Sam’s still hung up on his last boyfriend - and maybe even feels guilty about what he and Niall are doing.

Niall knows he has to get over himself and actually talk to Sam this time. It’s always been his worst quality in relationships - his inability to communicate his feelings. But he’s been putting it off for too long already, and he needs to do it for Sam’s sake; but also for his own. He’s heading towards heartbreak at increasing speed and the only way to stop it is to explain to Sam what’s happening to him, that he’s slowly but surely falling for him.

He can leave it up to Sam what to do with that information - best case, Sam wants to turn their casual thing into a proper relationship too. The worst that could happen is Sam saying he doesn’t want to be more than friends, but Niall figures it’d still be better to get out of it now in that case, relatively unscathed. 

He regrets now that he hasn’t told anyone what’s been going on, because he could use some advice about all of this. Mully might suspect something with how often he’s been seeing Sam around, but he’s also not the best at advice, if Niall’s honest. He loves him, but Mully can’t express himself any better than Niall can.

So he drives back home from the studio with a heavy heart, nervously drumming his fingers on his steering wheel. He hopes he can take a shower and calm down at home, but it’s just as possible that Sam’s already waiting for him.

He’s lucky - his house is completely empty when he gets home. For a few minutes, he tries to keep all thoughts of what he’s gonna say from his head, reciting the lyrics of song after song instead. 

He’s just getting out of the shower when the bathroom door opens and Sam comes in.

“Got room for one more?” he grins, reaching out for Niall.

Almost involuntarily, Niall steps away, watching as Sam’s cheeky expression turns into one of confusion, then worry. “Alright, love?” he asks.

Niall shrugs jerkily, making sure his towel still covers him. “I need to talk to you.”

“Okay?” Sam says. “That sounds sinister. Everything alright?”

“Can you just...wait in the living room?”

“Yeah, ‘course, if that’s what you want.” Sam leaves with one last worried look and leaves Niall alone with his shaking hands. He wishes this was easier.

Sam’s sitting on the couch when Niall comes in, looking almost as anxious as Niall feels.

“Sorry,” he starts, “I didn’t mean to worry you. I just...saw your insta story and thought we should probably talk.”

“Oh,” Sam makes, and then a fleeting smile crosses his face. “Working on those communication issues?”

Niall shrugs with a self deprecating laugh. Sam knows him really well. “Trying to.”

“So,” Sam says. He looks tense. “My insta story. What is it you want to talk about?”

“Well,” Niall tries, sits down at the edge of the couch, far enough from Sam so their knees don’t knock. “You miss your ex, yeah?”

Sam blinks at him. “I do?”

“Well, wasn’t that what all those sad songs were about?”

Sam laughs, only for a few seconds before he looks at Niall again. “No, I wasn’t even thinking about him.”

“You weren’t?” Niall repeats dumbly. “So it didn’t mean anything?”

“It meant something alright,” Sam says with a sigh. “MIght as well tell you. Who did the songs remind you of? Apart from my ex, apparently.”

Niall’s pulse picks up speed at the calm way with which Sam is looking at him. He’s afraid he’s about to make a fool of himself, but if he doesn’t take this chance, he’ll surely regret it. “Uh. Me?”

“Yeah,” Sam says quietly. “I was only thinking of you.”

“Why the sad songs, then?”

“Dunno,” Sam shrugs. “I was feeling emotional again, and maybe a little sorry for myself.”

“Sam,” Niall says, urgently, scooting a little closer to him on the couch. “Why would you feel sorry for yourself?”

Sam gives him a sad smile and shrugs. “It’s just that I’m really not a casual person even though I thought I could be this time, I really did. And I guess I wish I could be, or that...that things were different.”

His words are kind of ambiguous still, but the way Sam’s looking at him is giving Niall hope as to what it is he means. He moves even closer, until his left knee nudges Sam’s right one. Sam doesn’t move away. “Are you saying…? You know I’m mad about you, right?”

“How do you mean?” 

“Like...I know we’ve had this fun, casual thing, and it was great for all those years. But maybe...something changed, over the last couple of weeks. For me, at least. I don’t think casual is enough for me anymore.”

Sam doesn’t say anything for a moment, just reaches out with one hand and cards it through Niall’s hair. Then he murmurs, “You don’t know how much I’ve wanted you to say that, Niall.”

Niall smiles, leans into the touch. “Yeah?”

“Fuck, yeah,” Sam says emphatically, and pulls him in with a hand on the back of his neck.

~

Niall wakes up with his nose pressed to the back of Sam’s neck like almost every morning. There’s sunlight shining through the gap in the curtains, tiny dust particles dancing in the beam that warms Niall’s legs under the blanket. 

Sleepily, Niall tightens his arm around Sam and presses his lips to his shoulder blade. Sam smells good in the morning, smells good always, and Niall is bloody lucky.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
